(TITC)- Located in vast Muong Lo field, Nghia An Commune (Nghia Lo Town, Yen Bai Province) is home to 2,654 Thai ethnic people, occupying 90% of total population of Nghia An.
Nghia An Commune is a favorite stop-point of many tourists in the tour to discover Muong Lo area. Coming here, tourists will be warmly welcomed and have chances to enjoy Thai people lifestyle.
In order to protect ecological environment and preserve cultural characteristics, Yen Bai Province has chosen Nghia An Commune to develop community-based tourism combining with ecotourism. The local people move cattle cages away from home, upgrading houses, build bathrooms and toilets, clean environment…).
To impulse the development of community-based tourism, Nghia An People’s Committee supports local people to restore traditional handicrafts, festivals (hoa ban festival, pray for rain festival, harvest festival…), folk songs (giao duyen, Han Khuong…), folk games (slip pole climbing, rope bridge crossing, con throwing – throwing a sacred ball through the ring, stick pushing…); encourages villages to set up performance team to serve tourists.
As a result, Nghia An has promoted its special strength and gained prestige in eyes of many tour operators like Hanoi Amika, Sao Viet, A Chau… In Nghia An, they usually choose Hoang Kim Phuong family (Deu 3 village) to serve tourists.
Mrs. Phuong is a pioneer in the field of commune-base tourism in Nghia An. Her house on stills has been equipped with television, fridge, and internet. She arranges accommodation attentively, guides tourists to do daily work. She also organizes discovery tours such as cycling tour to visit Nam Dong spring, cycling tour to study Mong ethnic people life in Tram Tau…
Another good example is Mrs. Ha Thi Thanh in Deu 2 village. She has encouraged some woman to set up embroidery team specializing in weaving, embroidering brocade products with various designs and pattern to sale: pieu towel, 7-color handkerchiefs, dresses, hats, wallets...
Nghia Lo People’s Committee has approved “Community-based tourism in rural Nghia An Commune” project with total investment of 980 million VND for period 2012-2013. The project includes: upgrading accommodations of homestay families, building medicinal bathrooms, organizing training courses to improve tourism knowledge and skills…
In the coming time, Nghia An Commune will continue to build standard toilets and bathrooms, open training courses, raise awareness of local people, ensure security, develop tour programmes under the guide of specialised agencies.
Hong Thanh